Thursday, October 3, 2013

Inspectors, Acadia, Babies, oh my!

It was a BIG day here at the farm.
We got a call yesterday afternoon from the health inspector who was in the area this morning and wanted to stop by. After some initial freaking out, we decided this would be a valuable learning experience and since we had made it clear that we were still waiting on a compressor for our cooler, we felt pretty confident in everything else.
Turns out, we're awesome and he was super impressed! He seemed to be making an effort to put us as ease right away and it was sort of like an organic inspection in that it was more a matter of him offering suggestions rather than just 'writing us up'. It was great and we're feeling pretty proud. I posted a photo tour over on the Chicken CSA blog.

Then, Armour showed up with a special delivery to the farm, for ME! Mark had sent a sample of this year's Acadia wheat off to Speerville and they reciprocated with 5 kgs of flour in a fancy bag with a lovely logo. I immediately set to work to make the first batch of bread with our home-grown heritage wheat, bred especially for the Maritime climate! Even more exciting, Acadia has proven to be agreeable with some gluten intolerances, which we all know is a growing concern for many.

Here is the Beast at work. This cleaner is a work of art. Seeing it in action feels like performance art that is also extremely functional. Watching all the belts moving and the pulleys turning and hearing the grain falling and sliding and running out, it's so complicated, but not so complicated at the same time.

And here's the proud wheat farmer posing with his fresh flour sitting in a tonne tote bag of Acadia, ready to go!

Here's my baker's helpers checking out the rise in the new flour. Beautiful!

A very satisfactory 'bed lunch', as my sister always called it. Warm Acadia bread, butter & molasses. I predict solid sleeps tonight with bellies full of that, and the chilly air coming through the windows. Lots of quilts and familiar books, cold night, sunny days and busy bodies, make for my favorite time of year.

A couple more kid shots for those of my family members who read this pretty much soley for those:

This photo seems to have caught Sol at a funny angle, since it doesn't really look like him, but I thought he slightly resembled Rex Murphy so I wanted to include it. All he's missing is the crazy eyebrows. haha!

And here he is, already loving the jolly jumper. Hard to believe he's that big and strong already! It's a good thing we slow down our development as humans, since going from newborn lump to jumperoo king in 3 months is pretty serious business and I don't think adults could deal with that themselves.

I feel winter air on its way. The chicken CSA is down to it's last two pick ups, which means we're gearing up for pork! It's been so long since I had bacon, I can hardly remember what it tastes like.

I've got a bit of a rant coming regarding a blog posting that's gone facebook viral lately among the farming community. I'm sure it won't be popular with many, but I'm tired of the 'we're doing the best we can' line, when in fact very few of us are doing the very best we can.

Much to post about! Congratulations to you both on the CSA Chicken Operation Set-up, and the wheat to Speerville flour: a very proud moment indeed! And since I am one of your readers who does read your blog for both the farm report and the pics of the kids...thank you! Now, what will you do if Sol TALKS like Rex?! lol.

The Barnyards

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We are Mark and Sally Bernard and along with our kids, Lucy, Wilson, Thayne and Sol, we own and run Barnyard Organics, a certified organic grain and livestock farm in Freetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. We believe in real food, and that putting soil health first leads to overall health for our crops, our animals and ultimately our customers.
Come along as we share the successes, challenges and love of farming and love of cooking that come with real organic agriculture in today's world.